Jagex have hit out with a surprise new adventure set in the world of Gielinor with Runescape Dragonwilds. It’s an exciting new survival, crafting adventure set within the world of popular MMORPG Runescape and was shadow dropped into early access.
Now, I’m a big fan of the classic version of Runescape. Back in 2006, I remember little me sitting at my desk with my laptop, slowly mowing down an unnatural amount of cows and goblins — just round the corner from Lumbridge — just working towards the next level ding so I could hit that one hitsplat higher. Now that experience has been brought into a whole new light through Dragonwilds; Featuring a whole new continent within Gielinor to explore and dragons to slay all over again.
Dragonwilds still has those traces of nostalgia painted throughout, with memorable characters immediately greeting you from the moment you step off of the lodestone. The Wise Old Man, Vannaka the Varrock slayer master and Doric the dwarven blacksmith are some of the characters returning players will likely remember from their adventures in Runescape, however they do feel a little bit shoehorned into this environment. In fact, it almost feels as if they just picked a number of characters from early quests purely because of familiarity.
With no preconceived notions of the world I can imagine it would be quite a confusing experience for new players to understand the references to both characters present or otherwise as well as the lore that is fed in the form of various notes and books strewn across the world.
In fact, I’d argue that Dragonwilds seems to constantly rely on you knowing a lot about the lore beforehand, certainly for a lot of its current content. This is great for returning players who are most likely well on board with the comings and goings of Gielinor but for anyone new I can see it being overwhelming, and at times confusing, to follow.
All of that said, it does make up for this heavy reliance with some solid gameplay and exploration, and the addition of spells is a major highlight. Better means of traversal, buffs for weapons and easier ways to gather resources are all helpful when making your way through the world. The jump spell is my personal favourite, allowing you to reach new heights or float down from perilous cliffs.
When traversing the world you come in contact with a large range of enemies and hazards which really ramps up difficulty-wise. Even venturing into the vaults, Dragonwilds‘ dungeons, was a major step up in the first area, with some of the guardians beating me to a pulp within seconds. So, there’s an emphasis on gear and level progression before you haphazardly wander into new areas unprepared.
When you do get caught off guard though, and one of the world’s monsters gets the better of you, it does give you a handy notification of where you died so you can take a trek back and retrieve your items. This is very useful, however you only appear to keep your armour — as weapons, and other items, do not count as equipped when they are on your hotbar making it very difficult to fight your way back sometimes, especially if you didn’t make extra gear at your base.
Speaking of bases the system for building is not too dissimilar to Valheim, it’s safe to say that Dragonwilds has taken a lot of inspiration from the hit Viking game but it takes the base building to another level with a wide variety of decorative and facilities to deck your new fancy abode out with. I decided to build off of an existing building to have some more stable structures but, generally speaking, you’re only limited by your imagination and willingness to gather more wood than any normal human being could ever think to own.
Now, my experience with this game has been a solo one but I imagine this would be a much more enjoyable experience with at least another friend to not only lessen the heavy costs of building and resource gathering but also to help fend off against the hordes of enemies. This also applies to its “Hunted” and base attack mechanics, which left me overwhelmed at times.
Combat is also a little clunky, with enemies regularly performing extreme feats of accuracy with ranged attacks, melee attackers locking onto you unless you dodge and you, yourself, having the horizontal swing distance of a wet towel. However, with three different combat styles, melee, range and magic all being available there’s enough variety to get you through most scenarios.
Dragonwilds has been both a nostalgic trip and a step in a new direction, proving that the world of Gielinor has much more to offer. Being in early access, I can see this being something amazing down the line but… for now it needs a bit more polish and time to flesh out some of the more barebones sections.
Runescape Dragonwilds is available for PC on Steam.
